All-Bran é All-Bran, direito?

If you regularly eat a cereal like Kellogg’s All-Bran in the U.S., you’d assume that that cereal would taste the same in Canada.

Not according to a recent study by the group, Ação Mundial sobre Sal e Saúde (LAVAGEM).

Eles relataram que many popular foods, including Burger King’s onion rings and Special K cereal, têm muito mais sódio no Canadá do que eles fazem ao sul da fronteira.

Here’s more on what they found:

Nova pesquisa mostra que people in some countries are being fed over twice as much salt in popular global brands as their counterparts elsewhere in the world.

Ação Mundial sobre Sal e Saúde (LAVAGEM) has surveyed over 260 food products available around the world from food manufacturers such as KFC, McDonalds, Kellogg, Aninhar, Burger King and Subway.  Not one product surveyed had the same salt content around the world and some displayed huge differences in salt content from one country to another.

Kellogg’s All-Bran, por exemplo, contains 2.15g of salt per 100g in Canada, but only 0.65g of salt per 100g just over the border in the United States, less than a third of the Canadian level.

Essa ordem de Burger King anéis de cebola tem 681 mg de sódio por 100 g no Canadá, mas se você ordená-los de os EUA, the sodium content is 538 mg por 100g. No Canadá, 100g de Special K cereal tem 931 mg de sal, enquanto que em os EUA, the same portion of cereal contains 710 mg de sódio.

In an article about the WASH study, entitled “Como canadense como Salt,” o Globe and Mail tentou descobrir o que explica essas diferenças:

Burger King Corp. did not respond to a request for comment, and no company contacted agreed to an interview on sodium. Vários, including KFC Canada and McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Ltd., declined an interview request but sent a statement via e-mail.

A McDonald’s Canada spokesman said the company reviews its menus frequently, while KFC Canada said sodium levels may be higher in one country than another due to consumer preference.

Kellogg Canada Inc.. also declined an interview request, but said in an e-mail statement that “geographical variances in consumer taste preferences and ingredient supplies” explain why some of the company’s products contain different amounts of sodium in different countries. The company’s products contain “the minimum amount of sodium needed to meet consumers’ taste preference in new products,” according to an e-mail statement from Christine Lowry, vice-president of nutrition and corporate affairs.

For more on some of the differences between prepared foods in Canada and the U.S., have a look at our post, Por que gosto ketchup diferentes no Canadá?

And if you’re moving to Canada, você pode querer segurar o sal!